SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “arrival scheduling”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 55 records · Page 3

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2018

Air Traffic Management Technology Demostration-1 (ATD-1) Avionics Phase 2 Flight Test and Results

NASA’s first Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration (ATD-1) subproject successfully completed 19 days of flight test validation in January and February 2017 of an Interval Management (IM) avionics prototype and the procedures used to conduct IM arrival and approach operations. IM is one of the three elements integrated into NASA’s ATD-1 concept of operations with the subproject goal of improving aircraft efficiency and airport throughput during high-density arrival operations. The ATD-1 concept of operations combines advanced arrival scheduling, controller decision support tools, and interval management (IM) avionics to enable merging of multiple, time-based, efficient arrival streams. IM contributes to the operation by calculating speeds that enable an aircraft to precisely achieve a specific time or distance behind another aircraft. When precise spacing intervals can be calculated, achieved, and then maintained during high-density operations, aircraft efficiency should be improved by enabling the aircraft to remain closer to the optimum descent trajectory instead of using vectors and step-down altitudes, and airport throughput should be maintained or improved by each aircraft arriving at the runway threshold closer to the assigned spacing interval. This avionics development and flight test was conducted under a NASA contract by Boeing Research and Technology, with Boeing Commercial Aircraft, Honeywell, United Airlines, and Jeppesen as sub-contractors. The Honeywell built IM avionics were the first ever prototype built based on NASA requirements as well as developing and non-flight tested international IM standards, integrated into two test aircraft, and then flown in real-world conditions at the Grant County International Airport (KMWH). The IM prototype flown in the flight test used data from the Ownship and the assigned lead, or Target, aircraft to calculate the airspeed necessary for the Ownship to achieve the desired spacing. The flight test demonstrated that the IM avionics prototype generally met the IM requirement for spacing accuracy. However, the control laws implemented require further development to reduce the high IM speed command rate and the number of speed reversals observed during the test. Pilots assessed the IM procedure as acceptable, and issues requiring further attention were identified. In summary, the IM avionics prototype showed significant promise in contributing to the goals of improving aircraft efficiency and airport throughput. The flight test results also provided important data to the FAA and the working group developing the follow-on version of the international IM standards.

Baxley, Brian T.↗

NASA NTRS2020

Benefit Assessment of the Integrated Demand Management Concept for Multiple New York Metroplex Airports

Benefits of the Integrated Demand Management (IDM) concept were assessed utilizing a newly developed automated simulation capability called ‘Traffic Management Initiative Automated Simulation (TMIAutoSim).’ The IDM concept focuses on improving traffic flow management (TFM) by coordinating the FAA’s strategic Traffic Flow Management System (TFMS) with its more tactical Time-Based Flow Management (TBFM) system. The IDM concept leverages a new TFMS capability called Collaborative Trajectory Options Program (CTOP) to strategically pre-condition traffic demand flowing into a TBFM-managed arrival environment, where TBFM is responsible for tactically managing traffic by generating precise arrival schedules. The IDM concept was developed over a multi-year effort, focusing on solving New York metroplex airport arrival problems. TMIAutoSim closely mimics NASA’s high-fidelity simulation capabilities while enabling more data to be collected at higher speed. Using this new capability, the IDM concept was evaluated using realistic traffic across various weather scenarios. Six representative weather days were selected after clustering three months of historical data. For those selected six days, Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and LaGuardia Airport (LGA) arrival traffic scenarios were developed. For each selected day, the historical data were analyzed to accurately simulate actual operations and the weather impact of the day. The current day operations and the IDM concept operations were simulated for the same weather scenarios and the results were compared. The selected six days were categorized into two groups: ‘clear weather’ for days without Ground Delay Programs (GDP) and ‘convective weather’ for days with GDP and significant weather around New York metroplex airports. For the clear weather scenarios, IDM operations reduced last minute, unanticipated departure delays for short-haul flights within TBFM control boundaries with minimal to no impact on throughput and total delay. For the convective weather scenarios, IDM significantly reduced delays and increased throughput to the destination airports.

Traffic Management Initiative Automated Simulation↗

NASA NTRS2016

Route Optimization for Offloading Congested Meter Fixes

The Optimized Route Capability (ORC) concept proposed by the FAA facilitates traffic managers to identify and resolve arrival flight delays caused by bottlenecks formed at arrival meter fixes when there exists imbalance between arrival fixes and runways. ORC makes use of the prediction capability of existing automation tools, monitors the traffic delays based on these predictions, and searches the best reroutes upstream of the meter fixes based on the predictions and estimated arrival schedules when delays are over a predefined threshold. Initial implementation and evaluation of the ORC concept considered only reroutes available at the time arrival congestion was first predicted. This work extends previous work by introducing an additional dimension in reroute options such that ORC can find the best time to reroute and overcome the 'firstcome- first-reroute' phenomenon. To deal with the enlarged reroute solution space, a genetic algorithm was developed to solve this problem. Experiments were conducted using the same traffic scenario used in previous work, when an arrival rush was created for one of the four arrival meter fixes at George Bush Intercontinental Houston Airport. Results showed the new approach further improved delay savings. The suggested route changes from the new approach were on average 30 minutes later than those using other approaches, and fewer numbers of reroutes were required. Fewer numbers of reroutes reduce operational complexity and later reroutes help decision makers deal with uncertain situations.

Optimized Route Capability↗

NASA NTRS2012

Air Traffic Controllers' Control Strategies in the Terminal Area Under Off-Nominal Conditions

A human-in-the-loop simulation investigated the robustness of a schedule-based terminal-area air traffic management concept, and its supporting controller tools, to off-nominal events - events that led to situations in which runway arrival schedules required adjustments and controllers could no longer use speed control alone to impose the necessary delays. The main research question was exploratory: to assess whether controllers could safely resolve and control the traffic during off-nominal events. A focus was the role of the supervisor - how he managed the schedules, how he assisted the controllers, what strategies he used, and which combinations of tools he used. Observations and questionnaire responses revealed supervisor strategies for resolving events followed a similar pattern: a standard approach specific to each type of event often resolved to a smooth conclusion. However, due to the range of factors influencing the event (e.g., environmental conditions, aircraft density on the schedule, etc.), sometimes the plan required revision and actions had a wide-ranging effect.

Martin, Lynne↗

NASA NTRS1998

Development and Preliminary Results of CTAS on Airline Operational Control Center Operations

Continued growth and expansion of air traffic and increased air carrier economic pressures have mandated greater flexibility and collaboration in air traffic management. The ability of airspace users to select their own routes, so called "free-flight", and to more actively manage their fleet operations for maximum economic advantage are receiving great attention. A first step toward greater airspace user and service provider collaboration is information sharing. In this work, arrival scheduling and airspace management data generated by the NASA/FAA Center/TRACON Automation System (CTAS) and used by the FAA service provider is shared with an airline with extensive operations within the CTAS operational domain. The design and development of a specialized airline CTAS "repeater" system is described, as well as some preliminary results of the impact and benefits of this information on the air carrier's operations. FAA controller per aircraft scheduling information, such as that provided by CTAS, has never before been shared in real-time with an airline. Expected airline benefits include improved fleet planning and arrival gate management, more informed "hold-go" decisions, and avoidance of costly aircraft diversions to alternate airports when faced with uncertain airborne arrival delays.

Zelenka, Richard↗

NASA NTRS2004

Development and Preliminary Results of CTAS on Airline Operational Control Center Operations

Continued growth and expansion of air traffic and increased air carrier economic pressures have mandated greater flexibility and collaboration in air traffic management. The ability of airspace users to select their own routes, so called "free-flight", and to more actively manage their fleet operations for maximum economic advantage are receiving great attention. A first step toward greater airspace user and service provider collaboration is information sharing. In this work, arrival scheduling and airspace management data generated by the NASA/FAA Center/TRACON Automation System (CTAS) and used by the FAA service provider is shared with an airline with extensive operations within the CTAS operational domain. The design and development of a specialized airline CTAS "repeater" system is described, as well as some preliminary results of the impact and benefits of this information on the air carrier's operations. FAA controller per aircraft scheduling information, such as that provided by CTAS, has never before been shared in real-time with an airline. Expected airline benefits include improved fleet planning and arrival gate management, more informed "hold-go decisions, and avoidance of costly aircraft diversions to alternate airports when faced with uncertain airborne arrival delays.

Zelenka, Richard↗

NASA NTRS2014

Case Study: Influences of Uncertainties and Traffic Scenario Difficulties in a Human-in-the-Loop Simulation

This paper presents a case study of how factors such as wind prediction errors and metering delays can influence controller performance and workload in Human-In-The-Loop simulations. Retired air traffic controllers worked two arrival sectors adjacent to the terminal area. The main tasks were to provide safe air traffic operations and deliver the aircraft to the metering fix within +/- 25 seconds of the scheduled arrival time with the help of provided decision support tools. Analyses explore the potential impact of metering delays and system uncertainties on controller workload and performance. The results suggest that trajectory prediction uncertainties impact safety performance, while metering fix accuracy and workload appear subject to the scenario difficulty.

air traffic control↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Coordination between Federated Scheduling and Conflict Resolution in UAM Operations

This work proposes a federated scheduling algorithm and explores two mechanisms for coordinating federated scheduling and conflict resolution functions - two core traffic management functions in urban air mobility operations. A federated scheduling algorithm is first developed, together with data that needs to be shared among schedulers. Two mechanisms for coordinating scheduling and conflict resolution functions are then introduced and studied as conflicts in high-density operations may not be completely resolved by conflict resolution function alone. The first coordination mechanism is constructed based on the arrival scheduler at the destination and another one utilizes the departure scheduler at the origin. Experiments and trade space studies are conducted to compare these two mechanisms using fast-time traffic simulations. Results show that both mechanisms perform well in coordinating scheduling and conflict resolution functions and helping resolve all potential conflicts. Experiments also show that with proper parameter selection, both mechanisms can achieve better efficiency (less delay) while maintaining zero losses of separation.

Federated scheduling↗

NASA NTRS2021

Coordination between Federated Scheduling and Conflict Resolution in UAM Operations

Federated scheduling↗

NASA NTRS1974

Evaluation of routing and scheduling considerations for possible future commercial hypersonic transport aircraft

Travel markets which would be served by high speed commercial transport aircraft and the ability of the airlines to schedule and route the aircraft in a way that would achieve good daily utilization and productivity are examined. The following areas are considered: (1) identification of the major long-haul city pairs that would most likely demand nonstop service; (2) selection of flight tracks observing alternative sonic boom restrictions; (3) estimation of flight times for all city pairs for the various sonic boom constraints; (4) impact of airport curfews on possible departure and arrival schedules; (5) projection of passenger traffic volumes on the selected city pairs; and (6) potential daily utilization and aircraft productivity.

Feir, J. B.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Integrated Arrival and Departure Schedule Optimization Under Uncertainty

In terminal airspace, integrating arrivals and departures with shared waypoints provides the potential of improving operational efficiency by allowing direct routes when possible. Incorporating stochastic evaluation as a post-analysis process of deterministic optimization, and imposing a safety buffer in deterministic optimization, are two ways to learn and alleviate the impact of uncertainty and to avoid unexpected outcomes. This work presents a third and direct way to take uncertainty into consideration during the optimization. The impact of uncertainty was incorporated into cost evaluations when searching for the optimal solutions. The controller intervention count was computed using a heuristic model and served as another stochastic cost besides total delay. Costs under uncertainty were evaluated using Monte Carlo simulations. The Pareto fronts that contain a set of solutions were identified and the trade-off between delays and controller intervention count was shown. Solutions that shared similar delays but had different intervention counts were investigated. The results showed that optimization under uncertainty could identify compromise solutions on Pareto fonts, which is better than deterministic optimization with extra safety buffers. It helps decision-makers reduce controller intervention while achieving low delays.

stochastic optimization↗

NASA NTRS2018

Impact of Different Trajectory Option Set Participation Levels within an Air Traffic Management Collaborative Trajectory Option Program

This paper presents the methodology and results of a Human-In-The-Loop (HITL) simulation study conducted in the Airspace Operations Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center. This study is a part of NASA's ongoing research into developing an Integrated Demand Management (IDM) concept, whose aim is to improve traffic flow management (TFM) by coordinating the FAA's strategic Traffic Flow Management System (TFMS) with its more tactical Time-Based Flow Management (TBFM) system. The purpose of TFM is to regulate air traffic demand so that it is delivered efficiently through constrained airspace resources without exceeding their capacity limits. The IDM concept leverages a new TFMS capability called the Collaborative Trajectory Options Program (CTOP) to strategically pre-condition traffic demand flowing into a TBFM-managed arrival environment, where TBFM is responsible for managing traffic tactically by generating precise arrival schedules. Unlike other TFM tools, CTOP gives flight operators the option of submitting a set of user-preferred alternative trajectories for each flight. CTOP can then use these trajectory option sets (or TOSs) to find user-preferred alternative routes to reduce demand on an overloaded resource. CTOP's effectiveness in redistributing demand is limited, however, by the availability of flights with alternative routes. The research presented in this paper focuses on evaluating the impact on TFM operations by varying the percentage of flights that submit a multiple-option TOS ('TOS participation levels'). Results show the impact on overall system performance and on the rerouted flights themselves. The simulation used a Newark (EWR) airport arrival scenario, with en route weather affecting traffic inbound from the west. Participants were asked to control each of the three arrival flows (north, west, and south) to meet their individual capacity constraints while simultaneously ensuring efficient utilization of the capacity at the destination airport. A large, permeable convective weather cell located southeast of Chicago severely reduced the capacity of the west flow. The study evaluated the impact of five different TOS participation levels on CTOP's ability to re-allocate traffic from the west and improve TFM performance in terms of delay assignment and traffic delivery rate to the airport. Overall, the results showed that increasing TOS submissions allowed the overall system delays to be reduced and fairly distributed among the three arrival flows, at the same time achieving the airport throughput rate. Moreover, it was found that aircraft who submitted a TOS saw a greater reduction in delay, even when they were assigned longer routes. This was particularly true when fewer aircraft submitted a TOS. The results confirm that the CTOP operations with higher TOS participation levels helped utilize the overall National Airspace System (NAS) resources as well as benefited the users who participated.

Yoo, Hyo-Sang↗

NASA NTRS1998

A Fast-Time Study of Aircraft Reordering in Arrival Sequencing and Scheduling

In order to ensure that the safe capacity of the terminal area is not exceeded, Air Traffic Management ATM often places restrictions on arriving flights transitioning from en route airspace to terminal airspace. This restriction of arrival traffic is commonly referred to as arrival flow management, and includes techniques such as metering, vectoring, fix-load balancing, and the imposition of miles-in-trail separations. These restrictions are enacted without regard for the relative priority which airlines may be placing on individual flights based on factors such as crew criticality, passenger connectivity, critical turn times, gate availability, on-time performance, fuel status, or runway preference. The development of new arrival flow management techniques which take into consideration priorities expressed by air carriers will likely reduce the economic impact of ATM restrictions on the airlines and lead to increased airline economic efficiency by allowing airlines to have greater control over their individual arrival banks of aircraft. NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have designed and developed a suite of software decision support tools (DSTs) collectively known as the Center TRACON Automation System (CTAS). One of these tools, the Traffic Management Advisor (TMA) is currently being used at the Fort Worth Air Route Traffic Control Center to perform arrival flow management of traffic into the Dallas/Fort Worth airport (DFW). The TMA is a time-based strategic planning tool that assists Traffic Management Coordinators (TMCs) and En Route Air Traffic Controllers in efficiently balancing arrival demand with airport capacity. The primary algorithm in the TMA is a real-time scheduler which generates efficient landing sequences and landing times for arrivals within about 200 no a. from touchdown. This scheduler will sequence aircraft so that they arrive in a first- come - first-served (FCFS) order. While FCFS sequencing establishes a fair order based on estimated times of arrival, it does not take into account individual airline priorities among incoming flights. NASA is exploring the possibility of allowing airlines to express relative arrival priorities to air traffic management through the development of new CTAS scheduling algorithms which take into consideration airline arrival preferences. The accommodation of airline priorities in arrival sequencing and scheduling would under most circumstances result in a deviation from a "natural" or FCFS arrival order. As a First step toward developing airline influenced sequencing algorithms, an investigation was conducted to determine the feasibility of reordering arrival traffic from a strict FCFS sequence. A fast-time simulation has been developed which allows statistical evaluation of sequencing and scheduling algorithms for arrival traffic at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. In contrast to real-time simulation or field tests, which would require on the order of ninety minutes to examine a single traffic rush period, the fast-time simulation allows examination of multiple rush periods in a matter of seconds.

Carr, Greg↗

NASA NTRS1977

Terminal area air traffic control simulation

To study the impact of advanced aeronautical technologies on operations to and from terminal airports, a computer model of air traffic movements was developed. The advantages of fast-time simulation are discussed, and the arrival scheduling and flight simulation are described. A New York area study, user's guide, and programmer's guide are included.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1990

Algorithm Schedules Airplane Landings

Algorithm schedules arrivals of airplanes to reduce average or overall landing delay. Rearranges order of landing according to weight class of each airplane. Limits extent of one rearrangement to avoid penalizing any airplane or category of airplanes.

Luenberger, Robert A.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Piloted simulation of a ground-based time-control concept for air traffic control

A concept for aiding air traffic controllers in efficiently spacing traffic and meeting scheduled arrival times at a metering fix was developed and tested in a real time simulation. The automation aid, referred to as the ground based 4-D descent advisor (DA), is based on accurate models of aircraft performance and weather conditions. The DA generates suggested clearances, including both top-of-descent-point and speed-profile data, for one or more aircraft in order to achieve specific time or distance separation objectives. The DA algorithm is used by the air traffic controller to resolve conflicts and issue advisories to arrival aircraft. A joint simulation was conducted using a piloted simulator and an advanced concept air traffic control simulation to study the acceptability and accuracy of the DA automation aid from both the pilot's and the air traffic controller's perspectives. The results of the piloted simulation are examined. In the piloted simulation, airline crews executed controller issued descent advisories along standard curved path arrival routes, and were able to achieve an arrival time precision of + or - 20 sec at the metering fix. An analysis of errors generated in turns resulted in further enhancements of the algorithm to improve the predictive accuracy. Evaluations by pilots indicate general support for the concept and provide specific recommendations for improvement.

Davis, Thomas J.↗

NASA NTRS1996

An Aircraft Vortex Spacing System (AVOSS) for Dynamical Wake Vortex Spacing Criteria

A concept is presented for the development and implementation of a prototype Aircraft Vortex Spacing System (AVOSS). The purpose of the AVOSS is to use current and short-term predictions of the atmospheric state in approach and departure corridors to provide, to ATC facilities, dynamical weather dependent separation criteria with adequate stability and lead time for use in establishing arrival scheduling. The AVOSS will accomplish this task through a combination of wake vortex transport and decay predictions, weather state knowledge, defined aircraft operational procedures and corridors, and wake vortex safety sensors. Work is currently underway to address the critical disciplines and knowledge needs so as to implement and demonstrate a prototype AVOSS in the 1999/2000 time frame.

Hinton, D. A.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Aircraft Vortex Spacing System (AVOSS) Concept and Development

The AVOSS goal is to: (1) Support TAP goal of improving instrument operations capacity 12-15% while maintaining safety; (2) Provide dynamical aircraft wake vortex spacing criteria to ATC systems at capacity limited facilities with required lead time and stability for use in establishing aircraft arrival scheduling; and (3) System development and concept demonstration. The AVOSS system concept is to separate aircraft from encounters with wake vortices of an operationally unacceptable strength. In doing so, define protected corridor from outer marker to runway and predict time for vortex to clear ("Transport Time"), define operationally unacceptable wake strength and predict time to decay ("Decay Time"), combine and provide to ATC automation ("Residence Time"), and monitor safety and provide predictor feedback with wake vortex detection subsystem.

Hinton, David A.↗